762: Pebblepalooza - Convention Report

Friday, May 26

1:00 p.m. Welcome and Housekeeping Announcements

1:20 p.m. Gary Plants

7:00 p.m. Doug Conn

Saturday, May 27

10:30 a.m. - The Do-It-Yourself, All-Star Debutantes Jamboree Soiree Hootenanny

1:00 p.m. - Jared Kopf

7:00 p.m. - Erik Tait

10:30 p.m. - Gary Plants’ Ultra Secret Video Historical Showcase Exhibit of long-gone time past and magical curiosities

Time stamps for this episode:

00:00:18 - Scott Wells drinks some hot coffee on his drive to Dallas

00:04:50 - Welcome remarks and housekeeping by Lance Pierce

00:06:48 - Erik Tait talks about this convention being his first Pebblepalooza and his anticipation to giving his presentation

00:11:08 - Justin Teeman has attended every Pebblepalooza and tells us some of his favorite moments

00:16:28 - Rolando Santos is a Past International President of the I.B.M. and gives us his initial observation of this being his first Pebblepalooza

00:24:32 - Tony Cabral is one of the people behind the scene who help make this event a success

00:33:38 - Lauren Cohen is the only female attendee who has attended every Pebblepalooza since Year Four.

00:39:22 - Danny Cheng, from California is 28 years old and is apparently the youngest attendee

00:43:53 - Eddie McColl, from Glasgow, Scotland, talks about Roy Walton and his magic shop, Tam Shepherds

00:51:49 - Lance Pierce is the organizer of this event and talks about how and why he put this event together and how it differs from the traditional “convention”

00:03:40 - Mike Powers helps wrap up today’s events

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506: Lance Pierce - Standing on Their Shoulders

Over the years, Lance Pierce has befriended some pretty incredible legends in our industry including Roger Klause, John Cornelius and Michael Skinner. In fact, he is the author of “Roger Klause in Concert” and “The Award Winning Magic of John Cornelius” and the webmaster of The Magic Pebble online forum and the host and organizer of Pebblepalooza, an annual close-up convention in Dallas, Texas He recognizes that the work we are doing today is only because of what we building on, which is the work of the early masters in our art.

This week, Lance talks about first meeting and becoming friends with Roger Klause, John Cornelius and Michael Skinner. He also discusses the development of The Magic Pebble and the close-up convention that became an outgrowth of that forum. Lanced has much advice to share that he freely offers in this podcast.

261: Project Alpha with Mike Edwards

After viewing the highly acclaimed documentary, "An Honest Liar" about the career of James "The Amazing" Randi, I wanted to talk with Mike Edwards, the "psychic" who was "tested" along with Steve Shaw (Banachek) over a three year period in the late 70;s to the early 80;s. I have discussed Project Alpha with Banachek many times privately, on the podcast and on an L&L Video (Psi Series Volume 4 - Psychokenisis) but I had never met or spoken with, Mike Edwards, his partner on the project.

The stars aligned with my travel plans to Phoenix, Arizona and Mike's availability so we were able to find a relatively quiet corner in an otherwise busy restaurant and record this chat. It is a completely different perspective from the one I have heard from Banachek and the revelation during the last few minutes of our conversation figuratively "bowled me over". I was not expecting that news. You might be surprised and excited once you hear it, too.

Recorded: 5/27/2010 Original Alpha Kid, Michael Edwards pays a visit to the foundation and recalls some of the behind the scenes tricks that he and Steve Shaw (Banachek) did during the MacLab test. From Wikipedia: Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi.

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